'The Walking Dead' recap, 'Infected'

Some episodes of "The Walking Dead" inspire discussion by killing off main characters and twisting the plot; others, like Sunday night's episode, "Infection," pique fan interest by raising questions about the nature of the disease that has turned the planet into hell on earth.

Young, nerdy, bespectacled Patrick (played by Phineas of "Phineas and Ferb", Vincent Martella) started feeling kind of rough last week, before gacking all over the community water supply and croaking in the communal shower. Patrick woke up this week and caused mischief, starting a mini zombie outbreak within the rickety fences of the prison.

So basically, there are zombies inside the prison, every "human" in the prison could become a zombie at any moment, and the existing zombies are piling up against a fence like a herd of soccer hooligans doing what they do.

It sounds like it's getting pretty close to end game. Either that or they slip out and find some different gimmicky locale to hole up in. But wherever they go, this mysterious "flu-like" virus that's stepping up the zombies' game is going to be a problem. Like you could be in a bomb shelter with 100 crates of Kraft Easy Mac and the entire works of Netflix saved to a super government technology hard drive on a hand-crank powered MacBook Pro, and if you're just sitting there watching the second episode of "Mr. Belvedere" and you start feeling all nauseous and turn into a zombie anyway, what's the point?

The big cliffhanger this week was that Tyreese discovered his sweetheart, Karen. and one fellow prison resident (appeared to be an adult male) were burned in gasoline. Immolation, self immolation, aggravated immolation? We're going to need Sherlock Holmes or Tony Scali to get to the bottom of this one.

We also need to talk about little Lizzie. If Hank Hill met her, he would be like "That girl ain't right..."

Little Lizzie couldn't shove a hunting knife into her dying father's ear drum, and developed an unhealthy interest in a zombie wearing a name tag with the name "Nick" on it.

Speaking of Lizzie, I'm thinking it's pretty clear that she's the one who has been feeding live rats to her friends through the fence?

Carol is nipping the zombie rights' movement in the bud, and tells Lizzie that she needs to Michonne it up.

Michonne stifles her feelings, especially showing affection for babies, it seems. Michonne can also do some sick elevated raised leg pelvic thrusts.

OK, so what's going on with this "aggressive flu strain"? Is it from the pigs, or the humans, or both? Hershel suggests that many diseases like this start from swine or birds (because birds can spread it by flying, and pigs can spread it by turning into bacon which people can't resist eating, obviously.) And this strain bubbles up in your tummy like a Pepsi 2-liter bottle mixed with Pineapple Mentos, and sprays all of your insides out of your face. Charming.

I guess it's not suprising that this new plague is spreading, I mean people haven't been exactly keeping up their personal hygeine out there.

And should the crew just blow the prison? I mean, at this point things are so rough I think I'd hit the highway and live life on the road for a few weeks before settling back down in an airport or a movie set or something.

What do you think, guys? Are we about due for another visit from the Governor?

And does the baby know something?

So is there a way of not getting the disease, or is everyone already infected?

Just for kicks, I'll say it was when Carol took the knife so delicately to Dom DeLuise lookalike Ryan's ear and pushed the dagger in. I perforated my ear drum once with a cotton swab, and that kill looked like that times infinity.

CREEPIEST ZOMBIE

The one who was trying to get into the Nickelback concert for free by storming the prison fence, and the fence started to slice through his face and his eye bulged out like a cartoon where the dog gets surprised by something.

DEATH COUNT

Zombies: With the way they've been stabbing them through the fence, it's basically impossible to keep track at this point. Trying to figure out how many zombies were killed in any one episode is now like trying to solve the mysteries of the Zapruder film. My lowball estimate of 15 last week seemed woefully inadequate upon repeat viewings, and I'm thinking that 50 is a little more reasonable, both for last week and this week. Let's say 100 so far.

Humans: "Dom DeLuise" lookalike Ryan, some random with a mustache, several others during the outbreak. Three last week (Clara, Zack, Patrick), so we'll say 10 for the season. Now that the busload of Woodbury refugees has populated the prison, it might be necessary to create a new subcategory of inconsequential characters who died. I mean the little known characters' life is obviously more valuable than an animal or a zombie, but it's clearly not as valuable as a main character, like Rick or, Sasha.

A look ahead to next week's episode, "Isolation"

The infection spreads, while zombies hiss and humans have hushed conversations.